brendan - 12:00 pm on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

That was with my merchants hat on before, I too have an AMEX and use it wherever I can because of the cashback and various benefits I get when I spend on it, I too have an ego that needs regular massaging :)

If a merchant is stupid enough to pay AMEX 4% of their sale value I will use my AMEX card and exploit that fact if they only accept Visa/MC then I have no problem using them.

But from a merchants point of view paying 1.5% is more than enough for me and AMEX's merchant fees are ridiculously high based on the fact that anyone who spends regularly on plastic would find it hard to get by with just an AMEX card. If someone came to me and said they would only pay me if they could do it on AMEX I would say ok fine and add a 5% surcharge then I have no problem accepting it.